FORT LEE — It’s no secret that Mayor Mark Sokolich wants red-light cameras. He’s been vocal about it for months.

But equally vocal are the residents who oppose them, including representatives of the United Republican Club of Fort Lee who made the cameras a campaign issue during their unsuccessful bids for election last November.

So why not let voters decide?

That was the question posed by state Sen. Michael Doherty, R-Warren, during a meeting hosted by the United Republican Club on Tuesday. His remark came just weeks before the Borough Council may take up the issue.

Sokolich, who didn’t attend the meeting, said the next day that while he generally supports having voters determine what’s best, he doesn’t believe a ballot question could provide enough details for voters to fully understand the rationale behind the proposal.

“You put this on the referendum … [and] I don’t know if it would garner enough support to pass,” he said. “Every once in a while, government needs to have the fortitude to make a decision that, on its face, is unpopular.”

Even among the all-Democratic council, Sokolich said, it’s possible that the members — who often vote the same way — may split on this issue.

“I think it would be close,” Sokolich said of a possible council vote. “This might be one of those rare situations where I may have to break a tie.”

Fort Lee isn’t the only one grappling with whether to adopt the cameras, meant to photograph drivers who illegally cut through intersections.

Supporters say the cameras discourage drivers from running red lights, resulting in safer roads. But critics contend just the opposite. Cameras make drivers overly cautious and cause them to accelerate or step on the brakes at the last moment as they second-guess their decisions, thus causing more accidents, they say.

Critics also accuse officials who approve red-light cameras of an ulterior motive: issuing tickets to generate more town revenue.

“I do not believe that the government should have its citizens fearful,” Doherty said, equating the cameras to a governmental “snooping.”

“The people are not here to be a cash cow for the government,” he said.

The senator wants to kill the state red-light pilot program and has gathered more than 5,000 signatures in an online petition. He’s also co-sponsoring a bill to prohibit red-light cameras in New Jersey. A similar Assembly bill is being co-sponsored by Valerie Vainieri Huttle, D-Bergen.

The majority of tickets being issued go to drivers making a right-turn on a red light – not people brazenly running red lights, Doherty said. As a result, he is also pushing to have the fines reduced from $85 per ticket to $20 and to lengthen the time that traffic lights are yellow.

Organizers of Tuesday’s meeting said Borough Hall and Democratic leaders in town were invited to attend. But Sokolich said he was unaware of the event.

He said he doesn’t object to Doherty’s proposal to lengthen the time that lights remain yellow but questioned if reducing the fines to $20 would prove a disincentive for drivers to obey the law.

Sokolich reiterated his position that he is interested in turning on the cameras only at select intersections on the outskirt of town, like the Route 46 exit ramp, where he believes the majority of red-light runners are non-borough residents.

Fort Lee’s role as the host of one end of the George Washington Bridge makes it a “perfect fit” for the cameras, he said. The mayor offered two reasons for supporting the technology.

“One, for safety reasons,” he said. “No. 2, yeah, for money reasons. There, I said it. These things generate income.”

But the mayor was quick to add that he would not support installing cameras in the middle of town, where many of the drivers are Fort Lee residents.

New Jersey’s first red-light camera was activated in late 2009, and the pilot program will end in 2014. As of mid-August, the state Department of Transportation has approved 85 cameras in 25 towns – among them, Englewood Cliffs, Palisades Park and Wayne. Municipalities in Bergen and Passaic counties on the wait-list include Hasbrouck Heights, Fair Lawn, Little Falls, Paterson and Passaic.

In June, the transportation department suspended 63 of the cameras to test if the traffic lights at those intersections were staying lit long enough. State officials reported that all cameras had been recertified by the end of July.